A market analyst is predicting that desktop sales will finally rebound after two straight years of declines, and that much of the reason why is the popularity of Apple's iMac line. Analyst Robert Cihra told his clients today that the PC market in general will grow by from 15% to 20% in 2010 mostly from sales of netbooks and notebooks.

"We continue to model note/netbook accounting for greater than 90% of PC unit growth in 2010," Cihra wrote, adding that desktops will finally stop losing sales, posting "at least single digit growth" this year. The increase, according to his analysis, is being fueled by new markets outside the US, by corporations buying high-end workstations and by "power gamers." Emerging markets like Western Europe and Japan, will account for about 70% of the overall PC market's growth, which would be the first time sales outside the US added up to to more than 50% of the market. But "believe it or not," Cihra wrote, "we estimate Apple’s iMac accounting for a full 1/4 of ALL desktop market growth in calendar year 2010."

Apple's desktops have suffered in the general downturn, with the company selling 12% fewer iMacs, Mac Pros and Mac minis last year. Cihra's forecast, however, is that Apple will see a 3% gain year-over-year. Month by month, though, Apple's Mac sales shot up by 21% in November of last year, with 74% growth in sales of desktop Macs alone after the October introduction of the wildly popular 21- and 27-inch iMacs.

The company had a blowout first quarter, announcing revenue of $15.68 billion for a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion. The sales surpassed Apple's previous quarterly record by almost $3.5 billion.

Not like the bad old days in the late eighties and early nineties when Apple desktop computers were 6-7 grand. Could buy a car for that then. More expensive, yes, but you save in the long run. Saving $300-$400 bucks a year on not buying anti virus software alone is worth it. I'd rather buy computer hardware that's made by the people who make the software. You'd prefer to buy a Merc car with a Merc motor right? Anyone who's had a HP and had to restore their built in drivers after a hard drive fail would understand THAT frustration.